Where is the Gospel targeted? Many have suggestions. Read this short article and see if you agree. Share your thoughts.
Day 19/Acts 19
The tail end of verse 26 sounds like nonsense to us today; “And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.” It might make sense to us that man-made idols are not gods. In the day and time of Acts, people made a significant living on carving gods out of wood or stone. Thinking about it almost sounds pitiful because the same wood used to make a fire could also be made into a god to worship. Doesn’t that sound strange?
How about if I put it in modern terms? How do people treat their cars, jobs, houses, jewelry, electronics, or kids? Depending on the person and the object of attention, their lives turn into a worship of that object. Lives change, decisions are made, and relationships are lost based on the positioning of that object. What if 2000 years from now your life and others in the US were written down? Would they say the same thing we say about the people who worshipped wood and stone gods? What really matters?
The first commandment is simple to learn, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Deuteronomy 5:7 ESV) It is so easy to learn and also just as easy to not obey. Today we worship at the temple of commerce and the synagogue of productivity at work, or the church of put my kids on a pedestal. The above are noble actions, but anything that gets between worshipping the One True God becomes idolatry. Are you guilty of it? I am and not scared to admit to it but I’m also ready to change my focus on Him.
Have you considered at what altar you worship? What gets your full attention? What takes the most amount of your time? What do you spend the majority of resources on? One person said it this way, “You can know what is god by looking in your check book.” Can that be said about you?
In Acts 19, following God meant a change in society. That change effected the economy. Riots occurred because people stopped worshiping something that didn’t bring salvation. What would happen today if people realized that a job, a child, a paycheck, or a life style could not bring the completion that Jesus Christ can? Do you know Him as your One True God? Does your life reflect it?
Day 18/Acts 18
My first decade of professional work was and still is teaching in the public school system. During those first 10 years I can think about the many options I had to pursue different avenues. I was very blessed and earned some school system and state recognition for my teaching. During that time I had many amazing offers on the table but I knew that it wasn’t in God’s will for me to take those paths. He wanted me to have longevity in one place in order to set up what will come in the next decade.
God’s will for us may cause us to not choose paths that seem more glamours or exciting than our current path. That’s how I know it might be God’ will. If the path looks like it will glorify me more than the One who put me on it then it might not be His will for me to follow it. Would you say that you are in God’s will for your life? What would make you think you are or aren’t?
Acts 18 puts Paul in Corinth. Up to this point he had traveled through many places but God makes a way for him to stay there for a year and a half. If you’re a reader of the New Testament, you will hear in Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians his love and anger at their decisions. You also see in those epistles a person who has “earned” the right to speak truth into the lives of those in that church and city.
Do you find it easy to tell people what they “should” be doing? I have come across many people who think their purpose in life is to tell others how to live. If you’re one of those people, take a page out of Paul’s life and earn the right to speak truth in to others’ life.
Paul dedicated himself to the people of Corinth for 1.5 years. He worked along side many people and on the sabbath reasoned in the synagogues. It was God’s will for him to be there and for him to have the talents and skills to work. Have you considered that God has equipped you with the talents you have in order to serve out His will in the lives of many people you come across daily? You may be the influence they need.
So where are you in God’s will? If you don’t know; ask, see, and knock and it will be given to you!
There are many people in this world and especially in the United States who deal with depression. I have never been diagnosed with it before but I know that I have hit many lows in my life. I watched this message yesterday from Mosaic Church out of California. Erwin McManus is the speaker and minister at the church. He speaks lots of truth from the 2 Samuel text used in the message. Listen to it or share it with another person who is dealing with the lows. He speaks to the Hope that can be found in Christ.
Copy and paste the url below into your browser to watch and listen.
http://mosaic1.edgeboss.net/download/mosaic1/standalonemessages/standalonemessages-video/01iamhere.mp4
Day 17/Acts 17
Some of my fondest memories when I was growing up was of a couple men who were hunting buddies of my dad. When these guys came around I knew it was going to be fun. They seemed to always find a way to bring me into the conversation. I knew very little about what my dad and the two them talked about but they always recognized my presence and didn’t belittle me for not knowing about the ins and outs of hunting and man stuff.
Those two men were great for taking what they knew and sharing it with what I knew in relation to their knowledge. All to often I have heard from people that the church, Bible, or God was just too much for them to understand. It was a turn off to them when their “Christian” friends started talking about things they had never heard about. Their friends flaunted their knowledge and talked in ways that demeaned them.
One of the greatest compliments I ever received from an elder pastor, that was supposed to be a negative criticism, was that I preached in a “simple” way. I don’t understand why people want to make the Gospel message a complicated message. Christ came to save us because we can’t save ourselves. It’s not about all the things you’re supposed to do in order to be saved. He wants you just the way you are now!
Now people have problems with understanding that they need Him because they don’t see a need for Him. This is where Acts 17 comes into play. Paul is a great example of meeting people were they are in life in order to share the knowledge of Christ. He takes the culture around him and applies Christ to it so that others can connect. The Gospel message is not changing but the means to make it known to others can be contextualized. God’s love is for all. Reading Acts 17 challenges me to do more to make God’s love relevant to those I see on a daily basis.
How can you contextualize God’s love for others in your environment?
Day 16/Acts 16
In the devotional I’m reading that goes along with the 28 days in Acts, I have noticed a certain truth. “Found people find people.” I heard this first preached by Perry Nobles at Newspring Church in SC. Their church produced a devotional plan that goes along with what we are studying. Pastor’s Perry’s words were simple but so very true. If I think back to the people who I have see come to Christ, they are eager to go out and get more people on the team. Within my church this is also true not just for the new believers but the people who are actively hearing from God.
“Found people find people”. Paul in Acts 16 is an example of someone who is not just trying to find people but is radically trying to find people. He is wiling to suffer beatings and imprisonment just for the name of Christ. The best thing about him is that through all the beatings, persecutions, and imprisonments, Christ used it for His glory. Christ was made known to people who were so far from God. I like how Paul and Silas basically ruined the income of a person because they healed a young girl of a demon. Later this action would put them in jail where God, again, shows up! The jailer and his family didn’t know God, but God used what may have been seen as “bad” for Paul and Silas to the good of those far from Him.
Paul and Silas were ok with being uncomfortable. It was in that uncomfort that God did His best work. So the question is why do we choose comfort over God? To whose glory are we seeking? Share your thoughts.
Day 15/Acts 15
Xenophobia is a fear of outsiders or people that are different from another people. I first learned this word in a quiz bowl tournament in 8th grade. I had never heard it before and lost a point for my team. It was the only question I was able to participate in for the team and I failed them. I’m not bitter about it because there was a cute girl who giggled when I said it was the fear of Xena the Warrior Princess. It wasn’t an all to bad fail now that I think about it.
I use the term xenophobia because this is an actual fear for many churches and people within certain ministries. Acts 15 talks about how the Jewish Council and other Messianic Jews where beginning to doubt that Jesus was for “other” people groups. All to often churches in my past and in the surrounding communities still believe in their “traditions” over the Gospel Message. I have also found that as soon as a person of another color or different social-economic class came into a church building they are treated differently. Most of the time they were given lip service but no real investment from the people that were different.
I still remember from my childhood church the day a person came to our church who was from the “Spiritual/Charismatic” church. We were singing out of the hymnal and as soon as he raised his hand (oh the horror) in worship, people stopped signing and started to stare. Later he was asked not to express himself in that way if he was going to be at our church.
It’s very sad but true that we fear the unknown, but Peter makes a great point that silences the crowd at the council. In verse 8 & 9 he says, “And God who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.” (ESV)
I hope it is a clear as day, but we are ONE body. No matter what your denomination says or church says, we are brother and sisters of the same Living God. We ALL can come to faith in Christ. His atoning death was for ALL people. Don’t be scared of people who are not like you. Christ loved them as much as us.
So why are we the way we are? Why do some churches see in color and not trying to see like Christ? It’s still a problem. Share your thoughts.
The words in my twitter feed, “Weak and running on empty, I’m trying to satisfy hunger and thirst on a gummi bear diet”, caught my eye. It’s all to often that Christians feel empty and find a “gummi bear” of truth and try to hang their hat on it. The reality is that we need to hang our hat on the Gospel message each and every day. It is the True daily bread we are to feed on each day. The blog link below spoke some truth into me today. May it do the same to you. Share your thoughts.
Day 14/Acts 14
Verse 22 puts chapter 14 in perspective for any Christian wanting to see the Kingdom of God grow, “…It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way into the Kingdom of God.” (HCSB) I think I have glossed over that verse and tuning my eyes onto the verses about Paul being stoned, dragged out of town, and left for dead. He then gets up and goes and preaches some more! Wow!
Paul and Barnabas words in v. 22 are so contextual for today in as much as it was 2000 years ago. The Kingdom of God is contrary to this world we are living in now. Not only is it contrary but it is also targeted by its opposition. When the Kingdom of God begins to get traction in the world or in the hearts of men and women, the targeting begins. Troubles will come on a small scale or a large one. However, the apostles words are so true, “It is necessary to pass through”, because we who are Christians will pass through all the troubles of the world in order to spend eternity to be with Christ.
Hold true that you are going to feel opposition but there is a reward at the end that will out weigh all of these troubles. You are doing well, continue to fight the fight! Jesus already won the victory. Live out of victory not defeat!
Where is your troubles coming from? What battles are you fighting?
Day 13/Acts 13
Chapter 13 is a long narrative. It chronicles the first mission attempts of Barnabas and Paul (and John Mark) to Cyprus and Antioch. Several points about their trip stand out in the eyes of the modern mission movement. Many missionaries today still meet opposition when they meet people of influence and power in a region of the world. Miracles and wonders still happen today. In the narrative, Paul asks for blindness to happen to a man who is in opposition of God and God grants Paul his request. Today and the 1st century missionaries are also ran out of places because the message of Christ is offensive to many who do not know Him.
Chapter 13 is a echo of the past with what is still going on today. My favorite part of the chapter is how the missionary movement happened, along with other great moves of God. It started with prayer. The book of Acts is a case model for the church today. People gather to pray, God shows up in a big way, and people who didn’t know Christ soon know about Him. Chapter 13 starts off with men in the early church praying and Barnabas and Paul’s names came to mind with a mission. (On a side note, I have seen people falsely do this in the modern church to make people leave their church…sad but true.) Once the mission and people were brought to mind, the church continued to fast and pray to insure this was the calling of God. The modern mission movement of today started very similarly. I love the stories of William Carey. If you want to know more about how God moved in our not to distant past, google him and read how he got into missions.
God is ready to do some awesome stuff through our churches today. The problem with many of the churches then has to be the people. They are not filled with bad people but with more people who are deaf to the Word and presence of God. So how do we open our ears and welcome the presence of God into our churches? What will be the result if we open our ears? What do you think God will tell us?
